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The extraordinary life of Alfred Nobel

The Nobel prizes may be one of the most famous and prestigious awards in the world—but who was the man behind them? As I explain in my lectures about Alfred Nobel, the inventor and entrepreneur has left a lasting legacy ...

Winning the Nobel 'an earthquake', says Ruvkun

US scientist Gary Ruvkun, who on Monday won the Nobel Prize in Medicine with fellow American Victor Ambros for their discovery of microRNA, said winning the honor was like "an earthquake".

Publisher Springer Nature makes stock market debut

Leading academic publisher Springer Nature made its stock market debut Friday, one of the few initial public offerings in Frankfurt this year despite the exchange's strong performance.

2024 Nobels offer glimmer of hope as global crises mount

Next week's Nobel Prize announcements will crown achievements that made the world a better place, a glimmer of optimism amid a spiraling Middle East conflict, war in Ukraine, famine in Sudan and a collapsing climate.

Will AI one day win a Nobel Prize?

Artificial intelligence is already disrupting industries from banking and finance to film and journalism, and scientists are investigating how AI might revolutionize their field—or even win a Nobel Prize.

Researchers unpack sign language's visual advantage

Linguists have long known that sign languages are as grammatically and logically sophisticated as spoken languages—and also make greater use of "iconicity," the property by which some words refer to things by resembling ...

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Saturday Citations: Permian-Triassic mystery solved; cute baby sighted; the nine-day 2023 seismic event
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Backside breathing and pigeon bombers studies win Ig Nobel prizes
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Studies on pigeon-guided missiles, swimming abilities of dead fish among Ig Nobels winners
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First publication of J.R.R. Tolkien's collected poems offers new insights into author's personality
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This year's $890,000 Balzan Prizes awarded for research on aging, restorative justice, climate crisis
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Saturday Citations: Teen seals photobomb research site; cell phones are safe; serotonin and emotional resilience
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A mural honoring scientists hung in Pfizer's NYC lobby for 60 years. Now it's up for grabs
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US disinformation researcher laments 'incredible witch hunt'
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Researchers propose framework for contextual metadata
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First Nations people are three times more likely to die on the road. Here's how to fix Australia's transport injustice
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Saturday Citations: Corn sweat! Nanoplastics! Plus: Massive objects in your area are dragging spacetime
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Claw machine games are Rio de Janeiro's new public enemy
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Best of Last Week—How humans really killed mammoths, making AI systems smarter, mitochondria fling their DNA
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Saturday Citations: Tarantulas and their homies; how mosquitoes find you; black holes not mysterious at all
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World's second largest diamond found in Botswana
Mathematics
New research analyzes 'Finnegans Wake' for novel spacing between punctuation marks
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Saturday Citations: Citizen scientists observe fast thing; controlling rat populations; clearing nanoplastic from water
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Study sheds light on creative thinking
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Flood of 'junk': How AI is changing scientific publishing
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Saturday Citations: A rare misstep for Boeing; mouse jocks and calorie restriction; human brains in sync

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Analytical Chemistry
Efficient way to hydrogenate nitrogen-containing aromatic compounds developed
Planetary Sciences
Curiosity rover provides new insights into how Mars became uninhabitable
General Physics
Near-Earth asteroid data help probe possible fifth force in universe
Archaeology
Archaeologists use metabolites in bones to identify smokers from centuries ago
Astronomy
New study eases concerns over possible 'doomsday' asteroid swarm
Astrobiology
Astronomers use Webb to probe a 'steam world' in the constellation Pisces
Analytical Chemistry
Chemists use light to replace an oxygen atom with a nitrogen atom in a molecule
Earth Sciences
Arctic ozone reaches record high in positive step for climate
Molecular & Computational biology
Ending jet lag: Scientists discover secret to regulating our body clock
Environment
Air pollution inside Philadelphia's subway is much worse than on the streets, study finds
Plants & Animals
Macaques give birth more easily than women: Study finds no maternal mortality at birth
Plants & Animals
Environmental protections account for around 10% of fish stocks on coral reefs, global study finds
Astronomy
Astronomers investigate the nature of a fast-spinning intermediate polar
Plants & Animals
Researchers uncover new plant perception mechanism for light and heat
Archaeology
Sacrificial burial confirms Scythians' eastern origins
Molecular & Computational biology
What is microRNA? Nobel-winning discovery explained
Space Exploration
Hera spacecraft launched to examine asteroid collision site
Plants & Animals
Data analysis navigates lookalikes to try to pin down the true number of mouse lemur species
Evolution
Genomic study reveals fungal domestication by leafcutter ants
Plants & Animals
How a common economic theory could help save endangered frogs

Managing precision and stabilizing local knowledge

In 1911, a meridian circle manufactured by A. Repsold & Söhne in Hamburg, Germany, was installed at the National Astronomical Observatory of Chile under the watch of Friedrich W. Ristenpart, a German astronomer and the observatory's ...

When research data is shared freely

In recent years, Norwegian researchers have increasingly published their research in open access journals. Some go one step further and share their data.

Are accents disappearing?

In Boston, there are reports of people pronouncing the letter "r." Down in Tennessee, people are noticing a lack of a Southern drawl. And Texans have long worried about losing their distinctive twang.

Best of Last Year: The top Phys.org articles of 2022

It was a good year for research of all kinds as three men shared the Nobel Prize in physics for their work that showed that tiny particles separated from one another at great distances can be entangled. Alain Aspect, John ...

Making science more accessible to people with disabilities

The pandemic prompted workplace changes that proved beneficial to people with disabilities in science, technology, engineering, math and medicine (STEMM), but there's fear that these accommodations will be rolled back. With ...